Fun Stuff:

08/18/2006

When asked whether they would defend the state in cases where they had an ethical disagreement with state's position &#8211; which potentially could be the case on the issues of the death penalty or gay marriage &#8211; Maloney, King and Cuomo said they would be obligated to defend the state's position, while Green said he would recuse himself from defending the death penalty or prohibitions against gay marriage.

But from our extensive video archives, this seemingly more honorable stand on same-sex marriage from the openly gay Maloney:

And while he gave a stirring speech at this rally, he didn't explain or even again talk about his changing stance on this issue (Full video here).

In this era of wavering Dems, proving that you stand for something, especially when it so directly affects your own gay life, means a great deal. We understand this is only one issue in a multi-faceted campaign, and we show this not to smear Mr. Maloney or hurt his chances. It's just that in the future we hope he'll follow Mr. Green's lead and kill Mr. Boddy in the Ballroom with the Lead Pipe unapologetically refuse to defend the state in matters that deserve no defense. Taking such a stance may be a turnoff to some, but it'll make him a rock star to those of us who are craving intelligent voices of principled reason.

*Update: The Voice recaps the debate and the candidates' response to the question like this:

...then there was his flip, sound-bite sized, "Just do the job" response -- repeated a half-dozen times, that [Maloney] used to dismiss the truly thorny question about whether an Attorney General should ever decline to represent the state in a legal action they morally opposed (Maloney and Cuomo said never; Green and King said sometimes, as in the death penalty and gay marriage).